Record: Most remote inhabited island
With the nearest island of St Helena almost 2,430km away, Tristan da Cunha is the perfect place to get away from nearly everything, and everyone. But there’s no need to miss out on the perks of urban retailing – the island boasts a bespoke postcode to aid online shoppers Photograph: NASA
Record: Hottest place on Earth
Reaching a top temperature of 56.7C (134F), Death Valley is a sweltering location during the summer months. But its macabre name – and the inhospitable nature of this image – belie a rich diversity of flora and fauna. Coyotes, mule deer and cacti are among the creatures that thrive in the valley Photograph: Corbis
Record: Coldest permanently inhabited place
If you take a trip to Oymyakon you’ll need to wrap up warm – according to an icicle-covered plaque in the village the lowest recorded temperature was minus 71.2C. But while the thermometer hovers around minus 50C during January, it reaches a balmy 30C in the summer Photograph: Amos Chapple/Rex Features
Record: Deepest part of an ocean
Plummeting to 11,000m, the Challenger Deep is as low as you can go beneath the waves. The pressure at this point is equivalent to having about 50 jumbo jets on your head, while the floor is covered in biogenic “ooze” – a concoction of skeletal remains and clay Photograph: Tim Shank/AP
Record: Farthest point from the centre of the Earth
With its bulging girth, Earth cuts an aspherical figure in space. But this deviation has given Chimborazo a leg up into the record books, overcoming its modest height of 6,268m to put the peak at 6,384.4km from Earth’s centre Photograph: Alamy
Record: Highest waterfall
Tumbling down a sheer drop from the table-top of Devil’s Mountain, water crashes 810m before it hits the bottom of the Angel Falls. Its name recalls James Angel, a pilot who made a bumpy landing at the site in 1937, although it is known locally as Kerepakupai Merú Photograph: Fabio Filzi/Getty Images
Record: Record Highest altitude (above sea level)
A mountain of adventure, heroics, and danger, few places have captured the human imagination as Everest has. Rising to a mammoth 8,850m, its peak has been scaled by about 4,000 intrepid climbers since the first successful ascent in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary Photograph: Steve Satushek/Getty Images
Record: Driest hot desert on Earth
Antarctica is deemed the driest place on Earth, but the Atacama is the driest hotspot. Parts of this barren land have never been wetted by rain, yet its mineral resources – ranging from copper to salt – continue to lure miners to the region Photograph: Ariel Marinkovic/AFP/Getty Images
